The Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area in the Upper East Region, Naba Atamale Lemyarum, has appealed to the government to upgrade the district to a municipality to help accelerate the socio-economic development of the area.

He explained that the district abounds in resources which were untapped and needed to be upgraded so as to attract investment to improve livelihoods.

Naba Lemyarum stressed that “with the introduction of the government’s flagship policies, programmes and social interventions the district should be upgraded looking at the increasing population and the vast land area to accelerate growth and development.”

The Paramount Chief made the appeal when the Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia addressed a durbar of chiefs in the Bongo District to solicit for votes in the forthcoming general election.

He commended the government for the execution of a number of projects, social interventions and programmes in the area which included the Namoo -Balungu bridge, the Gowrie-Vea and the Nyariga-Zorku roads, the construction of sheanut factory, ware and slaughter houses, classroom blocks and Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) and 100 boreholes as some of the projects impacting positively on the livelihoods of the residents.


Naba Lemyarum also stated that the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs, the Nation Builders Corps, the afforestation project which had also created over 2000 jobs for the people in the area thereby reducing the rural-urban migration.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for the area, Peter Ayimbisa, who is also the District Chief Executive, indicated that the government did not discriminate when it came to development.

He noted that it was based on the development projects which have been completed were evenly distributed in all the communities and urged the residents to vote for him as the Member of Parliament for the area and retain the NPP government.

“The government of the NPP within its four years in governance has performed better in terms of development than the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was in governance for eight years but the government has more development plans for the area but could not execute them when it was not in governance,” Mr Ayimbisa observed.